The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-09-13

brought into the house and thrown on the
hearth, and they began to blaze inme
dlately, ana the freezing family gath
That was legend; but how often have
our guests come i'll to gather up the cold,
freezing SORROWS of our life kndling them
INTO illumination, and warmth, and good
cheer. He who opens his house to Christian
hospitality, turns those who are strangers into
friends. Years will go by, and there will be
great changes i'll you, and there will be great
changes IN them. Some day you will be sit
ting in loneliness, watching a bereavement,
and you will get letter in q strange hand
writing, and you will look at the postotfice
mark, and say; "Why, don't know anybody
living III that city," and YOU will break the
envelope, and there you will read the story of
thanks for your Christian generosity long
years before, and how they have heard afar
off of'your trouble. And the letter will be
so full of kindly "reminiscences
and Christian coincidence, it will be plaster
large enough to cover up all the deep gashes
OF your soul. When we take people into our
houses as Christian guests, we take them into
our sympathies forever. In bort, Holland, a
soldier with a sword at his side stopped at a
house desiring lodging and shelter. The wo-
man of the house at first refused admittance,
saying that the men of the house were not at
home; but when he showed his credentials
that he had been honorably discharged from
the army, he was admitted, and tarried during
the night. In the nighttime there was a
broke in to despoil that household. No sooner
had they come over the door sill than the
armed guest, who had primed his piece and
charged it with slugs, met them, and
telling the woman to stand back, l am happy
TO say dropped the two aSsaulting desperadoes
dead at his feet. Well, now there are no ban
dts prowling around to destroy our houses;
but how often it is that we find those that have
been our guests become our defenders. We
gave them shelter first, and then afterwards in
the great conflicts of life they fought for our
reputation; they fought for our property; they
fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Christian
hospitality is in the assurance that we shall
have hopitality shown to us and to ours. In
the upturnings of this life, who knows i'll what
city or what land we may be thrownS and how
much we may need an open door? There
may come no such crisis to us, but our chill
dren may be thrown into some such strait.
He who is in Christian manner hospitable,
has free pass through all Christendom. 1t
may be that you will have been dead fifty
years before any such stress shall come upon
one of your descendants; tlut do you not sup
pose that God cpn remember fifty years ? and
the knuckle of the grandchild will be heard
against the door of some stranger, and that
door will open; and it will be talked over in
heaven, and it will said; That mans grand
father, fifty years ago, have shelter to a strang-
or, and now strangers door is open for
grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining and
being entertained, they take piece of lead
and cut it in two, and the host takes one half
OF the piece of lead and the guest takes the
other half as they part. These two pieces of
lead are handed down fro m generation to gen.
Grafton, and from family to family, and after
while, perhaps one OF the families in want or
in trouble go out with this one piece of lead
and find the other family with the correspond
ing piece of lead and no sooner is the tally
completed than the old hospitality is aroused
and eternal friendship pledged. So the men,
DRY of Christian hospitality will go down from
generation to generation, and from family to
family, and the tally will never be lost.neither
in this world nor the world to come.
Mark this: the day will come when we will
all be turned out of doors, without any excep-
tion--bare-foot, bare-head, no water in the
canteen, no bread in the haversack, and we
will go i'll that way into the future world. And
/ wonder if eternal Inequalities will open be-
fore us, and ii we viii be received into ever
lasting habitations? Francis Frescobald was
very hospitable. One day, an Englishman by
tbe name Of Thomas Cromwell appeared at his
door asking for shelter and
aims, which were cheerfully rendered.
Frescobald afterward lost all his
property, became very poor, and wandered up
into England; and ono day he saw process
sion passing, and 10! it was the lord chancel-
lor of England; and 10! the lord chancellor of
England was Thomas Cromwell, the very man
whom he had once befriended down in Italy.
Frescobald, recognized him, and dismounted
from his carriage, threw his arms around him
and embraced him. paid his debts, invited him
to his house, and said: Here are ten pieces
of money to pay for the bread you gave me,
and here are ten pieces of money to provide
for the horse you loaned me, and here
are four bags, i'll each of which are
four hundred ducats. Take them and
be we'll" So it will be at last with US. II we
entertain Christ in the person of His disciples
IN this world, when we pass up into the next
country, we will meet Christ in q regal pro-
cesson, and He will pour all the wealth of
heaven into our lap, and open before us ever
lasting Inequalities. And o, how tame are
the richest entertainments we can give on
earth compared with the regal muniiicence
which Christ will display before our souls in
heaven! was reading the account which
Thomas Fuller gives of the entertainment
other things, for that banquet
they had three hundred quarters of wheat, one
hundred and four tons of wine, eighty oxen,
three thousand capons, two hundred cranes,
two hundred kids, four thousand pigeons, four
thousand rabbits, two hundred and four bit
terms, two hundred pheasantS, five hundred
partridgeS, four hundred plover one hundred
quail, one hundred curleWs, fifteen hundred
hot pasties, four thousand cold venison pasties,
four thousand custards-the earl of Warwick
acting as steward, and servitors one thousand.
o, what a grand feast was that but
then compare it with the pro-
vision which God has made for us on
high; that great banquet hour; the one hun
dred and forty-four thousand as guests all the
baIps and trImpets Of heaven as the orchestra;
the vintage of the celestial hills poured into
the tankards; all the fruits of the orchards Of
God piled on The golden platters; the angels OF
the Lord for cupbearers, and the once folded
starry banner Of the blue sky flung out over
the scene, while seated at the head of the
table shall be the One who eighteen centuries
ago declared 81 was a stranger and We took
Me in" Our sins paldoncd, may we all
rim IL. IL AlAL.-o H.. q -